Executive Summary

New schools are in high demand and school districts are rushing to meet the need. However, school children need more than brand new educational facilities to give them a hopeful future; they need a healthy school environment. Too many children are suffering from the impact of hazardous environments where they live, work, play and go to school. Childhood disease and developmental disability rates have taken on epidemic proportions, disproportionately affecting children of color and children from impoverished communities. Research continues to emphasize the role children’s environments may play in creating this burden, linking exposure pathways in air, water, land, and food with exposure to dangerous toxins. It has become alarmingly clear that children are especially vulnerable to the damage wrought by chemicals and pollutants, with devastating consequences.

This thesis does not attempt to address all of the ways in which children are currently at risk. Rather, this thesis takes a look at the significance of the school site in creating healthier environments for children at their most vulnerable stages in life. To date, many states continue to construct new schools with minimal investigation of the environmental quality of the school location and the possible health risks that may be lurking. However, an increasing number of regulatory bodies are responding to incoming data, making efforts to improve site selection guidelines, public participation opportunities, and environmental assessment and remediation standards in their school siting policies. Many are also working towards adopting precautionary approaches in the absence of adequate guidelines for ensuring the health and safety of their students.

Despite its high-risk profile as a historically industrialized area, Rhode Island has taken no initiative towards improving its school siting practices on behalf of its youngest citizens. In response to this problem, this thesis aims to clarify the reasons why the City of Providence, Rhode Island, struggles to provide an adequate school siting process. In contextualizing this issue, I detail two school siting cases in Providence, one of which has spawned a controversial lawsuit. I also conducted a series of interviews with stakeholders regarding school siting issues, drawing out their perspectives and insights on matters regarding children’s environmental health, environmental justice, and the school siting process, From various testimonies, I observed that the underlying problems and challenges of the school siting process were linked to the lack of government accountability and transparency, inadequate public participation opportunities, and the absence of precautionary siting regulations.

My recommendations for addressing these challenges and improving the school siting process include the following:

· Citywide adoption of the Precautionary Principle

· Guidelines for improving site selection, environmental assessment, and remediation standards of school sites.

· Improvement of the public participation process to ensure adequate opportunities for communities to be well-informed and empowered throughout the decision-making process.

· Establishment of a School Siting Advisory Board comprised of various stakeholders who will make site selection recommendations to the public body.

· Opportunity for a public vote to replace the appointed school board with an elected school board, to ensure greater public control over the priorities of their representatives.

· Development of a comprehensive digital mapping system to inform site selection.

· Extension of the lead-time afforded each new school siting project to 2 years to ensure each step of the process is well planned and executed to ensure the health and safety of the school population.

I am hoping this research will serve as a valuable resource and guide to the school community and the City of Providence.